Isaac Mizrahi’s documentary Unzipped was met with adoration when it premiered in 1995, but in a new memoir he claims that the success came at too high a cost.
In his new book I.M.: A Memoir, which released on Tuesday, the 57-year-old designer says that Harvey Weinstein once took partial credit for making the film — the same man Mizrahi now considers a “monster.” On top of that, Mizrahi writes that Unzipped cost him his relationship with then-boyfriend Douglas Keeve.
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“Miramax bought the movie on the third day of the [Sundance Film Festival], after a short bidding war. I met Harvey Weinstein a few times during the course of that negotiation never realizing what a monster he was,” Mizrahi writes, referencing the decades of sexual harassment allegations that surfaced against the film producer in October 2017. (Weinstein has denied the allegations.) “I was too absorbed in what was going on in my life, my relationship with Douglas, and especially the sale of the movie.”
He continues: “Of all the companies bidding on Unzipped, we sold it to Harvey because he assured us it would stay intact without having to be reedited, lengthened, or changed in any way. Years later I would see him out and about and he’d say to me ‘What a great movie we made together!’ and I’d think to myself, we made? You mean I made and you bought?”
Harvey Weinstein addressed Mizrahi’s claim and emphasized his respect for the designer in a statement to PEOPLE.
“Isaac Mizrahi is one of the people I respect the most. I looked up past emails and it read, ‘I’m so happy about the movie we did together’ and by did, I was referring to distributing it,” Weinstein said. “Isaac made a brilliant movie, and it was extraordinarily well received. He is one of the most inspired people I have ever met; a true renaissance man.”
He continued: “Like so many people, he’s seeing and hearing allegations, and I would hope he would see it as just that. Still, it does not take away from my belief in who he is and what he has done. I was proud to be able to work with him.”
Even before the sale of the film, there were issues. Unzipped presents an inside look at Mizrahi’s creation of his 1994 fall collection and Keeve served as the film’s chief shooter. While Keeve helped capture some of the more intimate moments of the documentary, working together also emphasized the couple’s problems. Mizrahi and Keeve (along with Nina Santisi) scrambled to finish the movie in time for the first screening.
“Everything was on the line for me: my career as depicted in the movie, my relationship, and my reputation as someone who could produce something good,” Mizrahi explains.
Though Unzipped was received with a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival, Mizrahi writes that it was was a “very bittersweet” time.
“I was staying in a separate room from Douglas, and I couldn’t help feeling the irony of that fact,” he writes. “Too many awful things were said in the final days of editing, and we were clear with each other that it was over from that point.”
No longer with Keeve, Mizrahi showed up solo for the Cannes Film Festival at Weinstein’s request.
“He booked me a huge, gorgeous suite overlooking the Mediterranean that felt to me like the loneliest place in the world,” Mizrahi remembers. “I flew in with Linda Evangelista, Kyle MacLachlan, and Naomi Campbell, who were there to soak it all up. It was the most glamorous and amazing screening, with loads of big movie stars in attendance. And it was all about me. Yet there was no way to enjoy any of it. That is one occasion I will never look back on fondly, no matter how much time passes and perspectives widen.”
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Later, Mizrahi co-hosted a benefit dinner with Harvey Weinstein and Sharon Stone that was attended by a slew of celebrities, according to the book. But even sitting next to Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant couldn’t distract him from his despair.
“All I could think about the whole night was the irony, the question gnawing at me: What came first, love or Unzipped? Did Douglas use me to get this movie made? Did I use him?” he writes. “That night, those questions presented themselves in all their delusion, as a bitter trade-off: this massive success in exchange for a life with Douglas.”
I.M. is on sale now.
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